The Ice Queen
by elvira raya
Summary: James never really noticed Lily, until one afternoon when he realizes that she has a lot more secrets than he had thought possible, and sets out to figure out what they are. this is my first fanfic so please review.
1. into nothing new here really

Lily watched the marauders in disgust. They ran through the courtyard with their black school capes flying, screaming at the top of their lungs.

"That was amazing, prongs!"

"Yeah, did you see his face? I thought he was going to die of shame."

"I thought I was going to die of laughter."

They reminded Lily of the children in muggle playgrounds, pretending to be airplanes. _They are acting like children, _she thought. _This is a school, not a playground. _She knew, though, that it wasn't worth bothering to get up and deduct house points from them. The marauders didn't care, and they were Gryfindors just like Lily. It would be pointlessly taking away points from her own house, possibly giving Slytherin the advantage. They were gone as fast as they appeared anyways.

Lily returned to her astronomy homework. She had to finish this now if she wanted to go into Hogsmeade with her friends that afternoon.

The Marauders were lying on the bank of the lake, occasionally bursting out in sporadic gasps of laughter. The look on Snape's face had been priceless. The exploding fire-crackers had worked perfectly, going off just as Snape entered the bathroom. They'd had to run as fast as they could, of course, but it was well worth the effort.

"What are we going to do next year without Snape to test our pranks on?" The four boys were finally in their seventh and final year, as was Snape. It was Prongs who asked the question, more commonly know and James Potter. The other three were Sirius Black, or pad foot, Remus Lupin, or Moony, and last and least, Peter Petigrew, or wormtail. The four had been inseparable since first year, and had eventually taken on the name marauders, once James, Peter and Sirius became unregistered animagi.

It had all started because of Moony, who, as a young boy, had been bitten by a werewolf. From then on, he had never expected to be accepted to any school, and was startled when he received his Hogwarts letter. It was agreed with Dumbledor that, once a month, at the time of the full moon, Remus Lupin would be forced, out of family obligation, to "visit his poor dying sick aunt." He, of course, possessed no such aunt, but, since no one dared to enter the shrieking shack, where he hid during his transformation, it was never a problem. The other three marauders, being of the mischievous sort, naturally found out Lupin's secret, and, being true and loyal friends, set out to illegally turn themselves into animagi so they could follow their friend and contain him in his shack.

And so three of the four marauders were animagi; James became a Stag, hence his nickname, prongs; Sirius a large and threatening black dog, hence padfoot; peter a rat, wormtail; and Lupin was called moony. They kept their secrets hidden deep within the bonds of their friendship, and so had little contact with the others at Hogwarts. Dumbledor gave them relatively free reign of the castle, and by seventh year, they felt that they knew it better than he did, or even than Filch, the nasty caretaker of Hogwarts. All of this, of course, helped the marauders create their reputation as the pranksters of Hogwarts. It was only the second week of school now, and the four had already pulled of half a dozen pranks, most of them on Slytherins.

James looked at his muggle watch. His father, though a powerful wizard of old blood, was fond of anything of muggle origins. The watch had been a gift. "Time to go to Hogsmeade. Everyone ready?"


	2. James reaches some startling conclusions

James taped the paper with his wand and grinned as it transformed into a paper airplane and flew across the room to Sirius. Flitwick stopped speaking and turned towards him, and James was scared for a second that he would claim the note and read it aloud. Flitwick chose to ignore it though, and went on with his lesson. James leaned back and glanced around the room. Most students were industriously taking notes, hanging on every word Flitwick said. James would get notes from Remus later. He glanced at his friend sitting on the other side of the room next to Sirius. James had gotten there late and the only seat left had been next to Lily Evans. He glanced over at her, but all he could see was her mane of red hair. It really was pretty, he realized. He'd never thought about it before. She was intently reading her charms textbook, her two best friends, Emma and Jane, doing the same in the bench in front of Lily and James's. Suddenly Emma turned around and handed a tiny piece of parchment to Lily, who immediately sat up to read the note. James glanced down at the book, and noticed it wasn't a charms textbook at all. He glanced at the title written across the top of the page, The Encyclopedia of Complex Charms for Advanced Witches and Wizards. Why one earth was she reading that? He had that book at home. His parents used it occasionally for a really complex spell that they might need, and he'd tried some of them before, mostly unsuccessfully. He glanced at the note in her hand, but he couldn't make it out. The symbols on the page were strange, and then he recognized them: ancient Greek. Why on earth would they pass notes to each other in Greek? It made sense to learn it, maybe. Some spell could be made more powerful if spoken in an ancient tongue, but to be fluent enough to write in it? These girls must be crazier than everyone thought.

He was slightly annoyed, too, that he, James Potter, one of the most popular guys at Hogwarts, didn't know what these girls were passing each other notes about. Actually, he realized, he didn't know anything about them. They were in Gryfindor. He knew that. The red-head, Lily, was a prefect, and so her grades must be good. She'd stopped the Marauders in halls several times, he remembered, but that didn't mean he remembered her distinctly. He knew the three were best friends and rarely talked to anyone but each other. In fact, Lily was so quiet and distant from the rest of the school, James and his friends had long ago nicknamed her "the Ice Queen," and it had spread through the school and stuck. It was appropriate. Lily seemed to glide through the halls room, her chin tilted up, her back perfectly straight. She acted as if she owned every room she entered, not glancing at anyone. Rumor had it that she had never had a friendly conversation with anyone but her closest friends. In fact, unless they were talking about schoolwork, Lily was rarely heard talking, and then only to her friends. She had reminded James of the queen in the book he had been reading at the time, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with her almost translucent skin and startling green eyes. She seemed to belong in a wintry land, hence her nickname.

Emma and Jane found the nickname funny. Lily was well aware of it, and she and her two best friends, Emma and Jane, all found it quite amusing. Lily was anything but icy. She was just shy and private. But the rest of the world didn't need to know that. It was much more amusing this way. Besides, there was a lot about the three friends that they couldn't afford for the rest of the world to know. The reputation they held was certainly not problematic for the keeping of these secrets.

Now James was suddenly curious. Why could Lily read a book completely unrelated to class and still get marks good enough to be a prefect. He could tell her friends weren't taking notes either, and if she didn't talk to anyone else, she must be learning this stuff somehow. The textbooks didn't have everything in them. And what were the girls passing notes about? He decided that he was going to solve the mystery of the Ice Queen and her Ladies.

Sirius's note came flying towards him. James reached out to get it, but didn't catch it in time, and it hit Lily Evans in the head. James glared at his friend, who had proceeded to crack up. Lily glanced up at James, not saying anything, with a glazed unreadable look in her eyes. For a second, those eye's caught James's, and his heart stopped. Her eyes were beautiful: emerald green with flecks of gold, and they seemed to go on forever. He could feel himself getting lost in them. He tore his eyes away and examined the rest of her face, the long eyelashes, the pale skin, slightly flushed in the cheeks, the pointed button nose, perfectly shaped red lips. She reminded him of Snow White, skin as pale as snow, lips as red as blood, but her eyes were green, and of course there was the cascading red hair that seemed to float around her head in an unwieldy mass. It wasn't a true red though. It was more auburn, deep and rich. She was beautiful, he realized. He'd never noticed it before, but she was probably one of the prettiest girls in the school. She handed him the note nonchalantly, and then turned back to her book, as if nothing had happened, but James simply took the note and leaned back against his chair, staring off into space, occasionally stealing a glance in Lily Evan's direction. She was a mystery indeed.


	3. their secret?

The Marauders sat in the common room, huddled around the chess board where James was destroying Sirius.

"Come on, Pads, just move. You've already lost, and I've got to go soon. I promised Emma I'd work on the project tonight."

"Bad luck, that, man. Having to work with one of the Ice Queen's cronies."

James shrugged. He had secretly been thrilled when Flitwick had assigned him Emma as his partner. Where Emma was, her friends were bound to be, and that made figuring them out all the easier. "Queen to E5. Checkmate. Its not that bad. She's smart, knows what she's talking about, and Flitwick loves her. Guaranteed O on this. I've got to go. See you gents later."

He stood up and rushed off to the library, where he found Emma seated by herself at the back of the library. He almost didn't see her at first; she was hidden behind several stacks of books that she must have used spells to compile. They were too tall for her to reach the top of.

She smiled at him, just slightly, and nodded. "Hello. I've gotten started. Would you look over my notes and then we'll decide together where to go next."

James was startled by her friendlyness, and could do nothing but nod. She handed them several roles of parchment, and then went back to the book she was reading. He stared at what she had given him. It must have take her hours. He hadn't done anything.   
"Emma…you did all this… this must have taken ages…I-"

She cut him off. "Oh, Lily did a lot of it a long time ago when we were working on- well, she had it already, so I didn't see any reason not to use it. You don't think that's dishonest, do you?" Another secret. They were doing research on the formation of the Crucio spell. He couldn't think of any reason why these girls would need that. There was a mocking look in Emma's eyes, as if daring him, of all people, to be offended by using someone else's work. He blushed, and realized she must know about all the times he'd taken notes from Remus or let someone else write his essay for him for a snog.

"No, no. It's fine. Quite alright, I just haven't really done anything, and you shouldn't do the whole project yourself."

She laughed. It was a deep, mellow laugh, not like the immature giggles he usually heard from girls. "Don't worry, Potter, I'll make sure you do plenty of work. I do have other stuff to do with my life, as much as you may not realize it. Just read that, and then we'll talk." She turned back to her book, and he bent over the parchment. The notes were through and detailed; he could tell that just by skimming them. They must have taken hours.

"How…How long did these take?" His voice seemed intrusive in the silence. Emma just gave him an odd look.

"Not that long. Lily's really good at that sorta thing, you know. Research and all. Plus she already knew a lot of it. She's rather useful like that."

"How am I useful?" Lily was standing there above the two of them, peering over the scrolls, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

Emma smiled. "Research, knowing stuff, just being brilliant. What's up?"

Lily glanced at James, then whispered to Emma, "We're on for tonight."

Emma's eyes widened is shock. "But I have-"

Lily cut her off, holding up a hand. "No but's. You know the rules. You'll have to ditch it all."

"Who called it."

"Jane."

"Oh. You'd better make sure she doesn't forget anything. I don't have time."

"I will. Normal time. Normal place. See you there." Lily turned and walked off, ignoring the eyes that followed her out of the room. Emma just looked back at her book without a word of explanation, then turned to James. "Do you think we should include this stuff about the history of the spell, or just how it's performed?"


	4. The game

Lily slid through the darkness that the covered the sleeping castle like a blanket. She loved the castle at night, empty and deserted. There were no prying, curious eyes here, no whispers, no one watching as she walked past. Tonight was different though. She could sense someone nearby, someone following her, and she had a good idea of who it was. She ignored them, gliding slowly through the hallways, her cape wrapped tightly around her and her broomstick in her hand.

She arrived at the doors to the grounds, held up her wand and whispered a spell the boys behind her couldn't quite catch. They couldn't see it do anything, but they almost gasped as she just walked through the massive doors leading outside. The Marauders glanced at their map, what they considered a work of genius, and Dumbledore, the headmaster, secretly knew about and applauded them for it brilliance. It had involved complicated spells that they had somehow mastered as second-years. Their map showed Lily right outside the doors, and standing next to her were Emma Carson and Jane Winters. James had sparked the other Marauder's curiosity when he told them about the conversation he heard in the library. They were now cowering under James's invisibility cloak.

"How do we get outside without them noticing the doors opening?" James whispered.

"We'll just have to go another way and hope we get there before they move to far away. Lily had her broomstick, did you see. They must be planning on flying."

"There's a passage in the great hall. Let's use that one." With that, the four Marauders tiptoed off, trying to silently hurry so they could figure out whatever 'it' was that was so important that the three goody-two shoes of Hogwarts would sneak not only around the castle after curfew, but onto the grounds, and why they had never noticed before.

Outside the girls were talking in hurried whispers, bunched in a tight circle. Lily glanced at her two friends. Emma was tall and graceful, with chestnut curls and hazel eyes, she was easily one of the prettiest girls at Hogwarts. All of them were pretty, actually. Jane was blond and well-proportioned, with warm blue eyes, and Lily a red-head with striking green eyes and petite figure. The girls didn't care much for beauty though. It was rare that they were caught without their noses in books, and the Gryfindor common room had come to look incomplete without the three of them curled up in their favorite armchairs in the corner reading. They were easily the smartest students at Hogwarts, but few people really noticed them. They didn't participate in class, and certainly didn't associate much with their peers. No one really knew very much about any of them, and that was the way they liked it.

"Someone's following us. They stopped when I went through the doors," Lily whispered.

"Who?"

"The Marauders." Jane whispered. The other girls nodded, trusting their friend.

By now the Marauders were huddled behind the girls, close enough that they could hear their conversation. "How do they know that." James whispered.

"Jane's mother's a seer. Jane must have some of the sight." They all stared at Remus.

"How do you know that?"

Remus shrugged. "My mum's friends with Jane's mum."

"And you didn't tell us. What else do you know about them?"

"Not much. They're all really smart, practically inseparable, they all spend their vacations at Jane's house, but I'm not sure why. They don't like us very much. Think we're too stuck-up and self-centered, which, compared to them, we are. They do something outside of school too, something really secretive, but I don't know what it is, but sometimes, when my mum asks where the girls are, Jane's mum says something like, 'They're off _working_ again.' Don't know what that means. That's all I know."

"And you never told us this before?"

"I didn't think it mattered. You've never taken an interest in them before. They're nice girls. Fun, when you give them a chance."

"You've spoken to them?"

"Of course. My mom used to drag me to visit them. I don't really know that much about them though. I'll tell you later. Let's listen. I've always been somewhat curious about where they go when they're not in the common room."

The girls were still whispering. "So what do we do?"

"I think we should just ignore them."

"But what if they tell someone."

"No one would believe them. Can you hear them? 'Oh professor, you'll never believe who I just saw out on the grounds after curfew, flying around on broomsticks like madwomen.' They'd have to admit to having been out on the grounds after dark anyways."

"Ok, shall we start?" They all nodded, straddled their brooms, and pointed their wands at the stained glass window above the front doors of the school. The whispered something that the boys couldn't make out, and jets of white light poured out of the tips of their wands, hitting the glass. For a moment, it glowed, and when the glow faded, several glowing numbers were left, but the boys didn't understand what they meant. The girls took off, flying as far from each other as they could. The numbers started changing, and the boys could tell the group of numbers in the middle were a timer. Just then, a ball shot out from where the girls had been standing, and the girls raced in to catch it. The boys just stood there, mesmerized by the girls as they zoomed in to catch the ball, and then, once Lily caught it, the other two chases her across the grounds, until Emma caught her. Lily threw the ball, and stopped for a while, while the other two chase the ball. Remus leaned over to the other two. He'd been watching the numbers on the glass too. "I think I get it. It's a game. Whoever keeps the ball longest wins. Whoever tags the person with the ball gets points and the person who was tagged is frozen for 15 seconds, and she throws the ball and the other two chase it, and then the ones who don't get the ball chase the one who has it and it starts all over again."

The other two nodded. "They're dammed good." James whispered. He was in awe. He'd thought he was the best chaser at Hogwarts, but he would be happy to never play against these three. They were amazing. They zipped and dove on their brooms as if they had been born in the sky. Remus nodded, remembering having flown with them when they were younger. James had a sudden urge to play too, to see if these girls were really as good as they seemed. He got a crazy idea.

"Accio broomstick." His broomstick came swishing into his hand. Sirius stared at him, catching on to his best friend's train of thought.

"Are you bloody crazy? They'll be furious if you interrupt their game. Remember what they did to us in third year?" The marauders winced at the memory of the borage of hexes that were sent their way after they had been so foolish to play a prank on the three friends. They had left them alone after that. James turned back to the soaring objects above him, and again felt the overwhelming urge to join them. He shrugged.

"I'll take my chances." With that, he took off.


End file.
